342 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



DiAGiNosis. — The only distinguishing symptoms I have 

 been able to detect in such cases as volvulus or intus- 

 susception, are — instead of the animal lying down and 

 rising continually, and pawing and stamping, and evincing 

 all that restlessness he does in colic and enteritis, he 

 generally manifests the greatest propensity to lie down : 

 lying down and remaining down, only trying from time to 

 time various new postures for relief, such as lying now upon 

 his side, then rolling upon his back, and afterwards by 

 stretching out hi-s fore legs, placing himself upon his belly, 

 and from thence raising himself upon his hind quarters like 

 a dog ; groaning all the while, and casting many a dolorous 

 look backward at his belly, He will seldom rise of his own 

 accord; but you may rouse him up: no sooner, however, is 

 he up, than he begins turning himself round, with his nose 

 poking down, looking about for a fresh place to lie down 

 upon. The pulse is not quick, but soft : and nowise 

 thready or contracted. 



Treatment. — In the beginning, these cases either really 

 are, or are to be regarded as, " gripes \^ and as, nominally, 

 such are to be treated. After the lapse of some hours, finding 

 our patient not amending, and the symptoms manifesting ex- 

 traordinary urgency, we for the first time, probably, entertain 

 suspicions that entanglement, or intus-susception, or internal 

 stricture, or obstruction of some kind or other, must exist ; 

 but of what nature, or whereabouts, we are, and are likely to 

 remain, in complete ignorance. In this state of mystification 

 what is to be done ? Some farrier of olden days answers — 

 ^^ thrust an eel down the patient^s throat, in order that it may 

 crawl through the interrupted passages, and thus right them ! " 

 Human physicians of former ages recommended that mercury 

 should be poured down the throat, with the intention that, 

 through its weight, it might penetrate from the stomach to 

 the anus, and in that manner permeate the passages : and 

 did the intestinal tube pursue a straight line through a 

 man's body, the project would be feasible enough. As 

 mattei's stand, I know really of nothing that can be done by 

 way of remedy, unless we adopt the forlorn expedient of 



